The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Lakers-Nuggets Reaction: Luka Doncic game-winner, Austin Reaves insanity, Jokic vs. Ayton | NBA

Episode Date: March 15, 2026

Jason reacts to the Los Angeles Lakers beating the Denver Nuggets in overtime. He breaks down Luka Doncic's game winner, LeBron James and Austin Reaves performances, Nikola Jokic's impressive game, De...andre Ayton's defense, and more. All lines presented by Hard Rock Bet.  #Volume #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas.
Starting point is 00:00:12 We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it. But, you know, tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you.
Starting point is 00:00:30 you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the ice. Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Starting point is 00:01:34 And for more, follow Timbo Slicelife 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Winning on Clay is an art. The rallies are relentless. And at the French Open, only the toughest survive. I'd know. I competed there for decades. Join me, Renee Stubbs, on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast for no nonsense breakdowns of the biggest matches, the toughest players, and the moments that define Roland Garris. Jen should win.
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Starting point is 00:02:17 Welcome to Hoops Tonight here at The Volume. Happy Sunday, everybody. Hope all of you guys are having an incredible weekend. Have a bonus episode for you guys today. So my wife's out of town. She's back in our hometown in Tucson. doing some stuff with her family. And so I was just hanging out watching Lakers Nuggets.
Starting point is 00:02:45 And I had to come on here during the playoffs two years ago after those Jamal Murray game winners. So I figured I should be able to do the same thing. I'm actually recording this on Saturday night as Luca Donchich wins the game at the buzzer just before the buzzer against the Denver Nuggets in a absolutely wild, drunk game between the Lakers and the Nuggets. And I know it's not a playoff game. I'm just having some fun.
Starting point is 00:03:09 You guys know the drill. But I'm going to dig into this game from a bunch of angles because I thought it was super fascinating as we saw the teams guarding each other in different ways throughout. And I kind of want to dig into some of those details and talk about some of the specifics that I think we'll see if these two teams happen to face off in the postseason at some point down the line. You guys know the joke before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Make sure you like this video and sign up for post notifications. It helps us a lot. And last but at least, if you guys want to leave mailbag questions into our mailbag. drop them in our full episodes on YouTube in the comments and we'll get to them in our mailbags throughout the rest of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. So the final sequence is crazy, right? So we get the Lakers end up going small down the stretch. And I want to come back to that in a minute because it's part of the way that these two teams are trying to guard each other. They go small down the stretch and they're getting cooked because they're having a double team Yokic and guys are just hitting threes off of that, right? Aaron Gordon was
Starting point is 00:04:05 phenomenal in the second half just absolutely nails on his catch and shoot threes. Tim Hardaway Jr. hits an absolutely massive one there in the left corner, right? So JJ Reddick makes an adjustment to start overtime and he goes back to DeAndre Ait. And throughout most of the game, Aton and Hayes both really struggled. And part of the reason why is that the Lakers do a lot of switching and they were having a hard time guarding three point shooters, right? So like it just said, it seemed like whether it was on Yokech it straight up or whether it was on like, like Aaron Gordon in the switch, they were just pulling those guys out and able to just hit little basic moves to hit threes over the top. Aaron Gordon hits another massive three over
Starting point is 00:04:44 D'Andre Aton in the right corner. That's basically the last we see of him down the stretch that we get a little bit of Jackson Hayes and then it's a small ball group, right? So at J.J. Redick, after the double teams don't work, he makes the adjustment. We see D'Andre Atene in overtime. And to DeAndre Aton's credit, like he starts getting stops one on one against Yokic actually gets three of them, the third of which was a really, impressive block on kind of a recover along the baseline. And Aitin inexplicably doesn't grab the basketball, even though it's right there for him to grab, right? So he doesn't grab it out of bounds, back to the nuggets. And so Yokic has a chance to solve the puzzle, right? So like he's seen this
Starting point is 00:05:22 Aiton look three times already in overtime. He patiently takes his time, throws a little lefty jab step, right? And do you guys remember when Aaron Gordon hit the three against DeAndreighton in the right corner, Tim Legler, very smartly on the call, pointed out that all Aaron Gordon had to do was just kind of throw a little jab and it got Aiton to kind of back up enough for him to get to a shot. Similar kind of thing happened on that Yokch jab, right? It's a sideways jab to his left. Aiton just shifts a little bit and that just gives Yokic just enough space to hit the gap and get to that little right hand or off the glass, right? That ties the game. We go down to the other end of the floor. Nicole Yokich ends up getting the inbound's pass from Spencer's.
Starting point is 00:06:04 Jones, Denver inexplicably doesn't take their foul to give to try to eat some more clock and force Luca into tougher spot. But Luca just drives away from the double team and gets to his little step back there along the baseline hits it and effectively wins the game. We get a heave from Tim Hardaway Jr. that gets left short. But really, really impressive little bit of ISO shot making from Luca Donchich to win the game. And I want to stay on Luca for a second. There's a bunch of different stuff I want to get into here. But I didn't think Luca would was very good in the second half. I thought he was very good in the first half, just super locked in missed some shots that we know he's capable of making, but he was very focused, very intense,
Starting point is 00:06:42 was generating a lot of really good shots. And then one of the things that I thought happened in the second half was Christian Brown got into his, like got into his space in a way that made Luca uncomfortable attacking him one on one. And so Luca had to go to ball screens. And when Luca was going to ball screens, Denver was putting two on the ball. And he had a pretty extended stretch there where he was just struggling. He was just struggling to generate good shots against the two on the ball look. And in that third quarter, Nicole Yokic went like, he had this time out. He got on his teammates. And Yokic like looked laser focused in that second half. And Luca was fading a little bit. And I thought for the most part in that second half, Yokic actually outplayed him. But one of the
Starting point is 00:07:23 things I talk about all the time is like the beautiful thing about the game of basketball is it's usually going to give you another opportunity to make a play. Right. And, uh, it's, I'd even extend that outside of a game. Like, let's say that Austin doesn't get that little shot off the rim that sends the game to overtime. Like, if Austin doesn't make that play, they lose. Yokeage outplays Luca, Denver wins. They could theoretically meet down the line. And Luca could have another chance, right?
Starting point is 00:07:53 Like, even if you get eliminated in the playoffs, you could do it next season. That's my favorite thing about the game of basketball. There's just always you live to fight another day. But I'd even take that within the singular game. Like generally speaking, especially in a team sport like this, where your team can pick you up when you're not necessarily having your best game, another opportunity presents itself. And I thought there were two distinct sequences where Luca just made big plays that helped.
Starting point is 00:08:20 I'm going to actually expand that to three. There was three distinct sequences where I thought Luca just made the plays down the stretch of the game that wiped out everything else. because here's the thing. You make a play, you win the game. Nobody cares what happened before that, right? So Luke has this rough second half, but he has a six-o burst right towards the end of regulation when the Lakers look dead in the water, hits a three, draws a foul on Jamal Murray, hits three more free throws. That ties the game. That was a huge sequence in that second half. Two, he had been struggling with the two on the ball sequences. But one of the ways that he finally kind of figured it out in that second half was with the two, the Marcus Smart Pick and Pop, which I want to get back to in a minute. They put Yokic on Marcus. Marcus picks and pops. Finally, Luca had a couple of plays where he handled the two on the ball well, didn't turn the ball over, actually hit the ball on time our target to Marcus. Marcus hit some threes. And then on that final possession against Spencer Jones, hitting that little
Starting point is 00:09:16 step back on the baseline. I say this, I always harp on this point because I think it's a really valuable point for young basketball players. You're not always going to play your best. Luca, we've talked about it on the show. He's been amazing for a couple of weeks now. Luca's been really really good. And sometimes you just go out and the shots don't fall. Sometimes your body doesn't respond the way you want to. You don't have as much energy as you usually do. Like sometimes things just don't fire on all cylinders the way you want them to, but there's still a lot of basketball left. Sometimes you look up at the scoreboard and you're like, man, like I have six turnovers and I'm missing my threes and like the other team's got a five point lead. It's like hang in there. Keep your
Starting point is 00:09:54 head in the game. Make a stop. Make a play. Do something. Hang in there. There's more basketball to be played and you can find yourself on top at the end and no one's going to care. Like, you know what I see? I see a Luca 30 point triple double. I see 30 11 and 13 and a W. That's what I see. Just because he was able to make a few plays down the stretch that he raised an otherwise rough second half. So I just wanted to shout out Luca Donchitz for that. Austin Reeves, man, another 32 points to go with seven rebounds and six assists. had two brutal mistakes down the stretch of this game. He gets this huge steal on a, he was doing a great job in the Laker small ball looks of fronting the post on Nicole
Starting point is 00:10:35 Yokic, right? So like, I want to set that stuff to the side for a minute because I want to dig into the different ways that the teams guarded each other because I thought that was fascinating. But he gets a steal on Nicole Yokic has a brutal full court pass. That was just a terrible idea. Get stolen, goes down, Aaron Gordon hits a three, just a, just an absolute sledgehammer to the chest type of mistake.
Starting point is 00:10:56 and then as another one a few minutes later, or a few seconds later, where he exposes the basketball in front of Nicole Yokic and Nicole Yokic strips him. So he has two pretty bad turnovers down the stretch, but same sort of thing. Just make a damn play. Make a damn play and nobody will care, right? Like, and Austin ends up making that brilliant play, throwing the ball off of the side of the rim in a way that went in a direction where there wasn't as much traffic where he felt like he had a chance to get it, composed himself and hit a really nice floater. Kind of reminded me of that float. that Kobe Bryant hit back in 2006 in game five against the sons after the, I think it was the Smush Parker Steel, if I remember correctly, runs along the sideline. It's like this
Starting point is 00:11:34 hectic final sequence and just somehow composes himself to knock down like a just an easy little floater. That was what that Austin floater reminded me up. But same sort of thing. Like Austin just made a play and it alleviated some of the mistakes. LeBron had a bad turnover on a pick and roll where he tried to force a pass to, I think it was to Jackson Hayes down the lane. He didn't, I thought LeBron in particular looked kind of tired in the second half of this game, but just made a couple of plays like, you know, diving on a loose ball, uh, that one close out that he attacked off of the right wing when he dropped it off to DeAndre, in an overtime for the little hook shot in the lane. Like LeBron just found a little bit of, uh, opportunities to make little
Starting point is 00:12:19 plays here or there to help the team win, big rebound here, big defensive rotation there, right? So like, I just thought this game should. showed a lot of resilience from the Lakers stars. Even Dianne, like Dianne, was having a rough game and to come in and like cold, come in, like like a real time between in the middle of the fourth quarter when he left to when he came back in and overtime. We're probably talking about 15, 20, 30 minutes of real time.
Starting point is 00:12:42 I'm not sure exactly what it was, but a large chunk of real time that he was out of the game and to just get dropped back into overtime and to lock in and make several plays that helped the team win. I just thought the Lakers showed an impressive level of resilience and I wanted to give them a lot of credit for that. Today's show is brought to you by a presenting sponsor, Hard Rock Bet, Florida's Sportsbook. March is here and that means college basketball takes center stage.
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Starting point is 00:14:19 Hey, it's us, the Jonas brothers, and guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, name? Huge news. We created our... own podcast called Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it.
Starting point is 00:14:29 We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts. We're starting a trend. But this one's extra special. So how do we actually come up with a name Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it.
Starting point is 00:14:45 Well, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band. Before Jonas Brothers. This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, people could call in and say, hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad,
Starting point is 00:15:05 Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, Not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and Friends.
Starting point is 00:15:24 Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, S&L's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Starting point is 00:15:49 Imagine an Olympics where doping is not. not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds.
Starting point is 00:16:09 I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So let's take into some of the ways that the two teams regarding each other. with the with the nuggets on offense because these are the kinds of things when we actually talk about these two teams potentially meeting in a playoff series like let's say the Lakers get the three seed and the Nuggets get the six seed, which is certainly a possibility. I think it's, I think the Nuggets are going to end up higher than six because they have a pretty easy
Starting point is 00:16:40 schedule down the tail end of the season. So I think they'll rack up some wins and I wouldn't be surprised if the Nuggets ended up three or four. But even then the Lakers are about to go on this like brutal road trip. They play Houston twice. They're about to play Orlando. They're about to play Miami. They're about to play in Detroit. Like the, the Lakers are about to go on this tough road trip. So this thing could hold this whole thing could flip and it could be three six, Denver at the three and the Lakers at the six, right? So there's a chance these two teams play each other.
Starting point is 00:17:03 So I want to dig into some of the ways that the two teams regarding each other. So when Denver had the ball, when, uh, when they were going with their centers through the majority part of the game, as they were switching in the first half in particular, the Lakers were doubling and rotating really well, but the Nuggets were missing some pretty good look. that shifted in the second half, if you guys remember. And in that second half, you know, Aaron Gordon gets going, you know, Bruce Brown's hitting threes,
Starting point is 00:17:30 Tim Hardaway Jr.'s hitting threes. I thought Cam Johnson was really good for the most part tonight. They're capitalizing on those double teams and hitting threes, right? So the trick is they go small. I actually like the Lakers going small if they're going to switch and allow Yokic to pick on matchups, right? So like in theory, if Diann-Aiton can guard Nicole Yolichie Yolkichie, one-on-one, which I want to set that aside because I don't necessarily think that's true.
Starting point is 00:17:56 I think Yokic could solve that problem. But if Aiton could guard him one-on-one and you could avoid switches, then it makes some sense, right? But it doesn't matter if the big is guarding Yokic to start the possession if all it takes is a simple guard guard screen and now you've got Austin on the ball anyway, right? And so when that happens, when you're switching and allowing a small to get on Yokch, it creates the exact same problem. you're two on the ball. Now you're in rotation. Except for now you're slower, right? So my whole thing is, especially in this particular matchup, it works when DeAndre Aiton's able to stay on Nicole Yokic. So like when they're throwing the ball to Yokic against Aiton one on one without even trying to get Aton
Starting point is 00:18:41 off of him, it works to their advantage, which is what we saw in overtime. But in my opinion, if the Lakers are going to switch, they actually would be, it would behoove them to be faster. And so with that being the case, like the, like you're going to be in rotation, foot speed actually benefits you there. I'd even take it a step further to say like, again, what happened on that last possession, the last defensive possession, Aitin, who defended Yokic well for most of overtime, Yokch solves it, right? Jabstab gets to his right hand, goes to that little soft floater off the glass.
Starting point is 00:19:14 And so I don't necessarily think that Aiton would be able to guard Yokic one-on-one a ton in general. but I think the Lakers should try if they're going to guard Yokic with the center to not switch and allow Aiton to at least try to compete their one-on-one. If you're going to switch, you're better off being faster.
Starting point is 00:19:34 Go with Jackson if you're going to go with the center or go centerless like they did down the stretch. The Lakers had a centerless look. It was the exact starting lineup. So Aiton, Smart, Donchitz, Reeves, LeBron, but instead of Aiton, they had Rui in there. And I think they went with it for just a few minutes, in the fourth quarter, and I think there were plus four in that game, if I remember correctly.
Starting point is 00:19:55 What that ends up doing when they go small is on the other end, it causes Yokic to guard Marcus smarts, kind of file that away for later. But I do think that the Lakers are going to have to play small against Denver a little bit more than we think simply because they're going to be in rotation. So how do you guard Yokic on the double teams? He's going to eventually see where the reads are, right? The final pass to Tim Hardaway Jr. is a classic exam. example. They press way up on Yokic. Yokic just whips a beautiful cross court pass to Tim Hardaway Jr. in the left corner, he knocks it down, right? Like, over time, as Yokic sees those double teams over and over and over again, he's going to get better at it. The Lakers were doubling
Starting point is 00:20:36 Yokch a ton in Denver a couple weeks ago, right? If you guys remember, in that game, Yokic had nine turnovers. Tonight he only had four, right? Because he's going to make the adjustment. He's going to see it, he's going to, he's going to be able to make those reads quicker on time. And the, the nuggets are going to be prepared to knock down shots off of that. So going smaller just gives you a little bit more speed in rotation. So again, I think as I look at the Lakers guarding Denver, if I've eaten on Yokic, I would explore not switching to see if we could get more of those one-on-ones where you don't necessarily have to double Yokic, at least unless he gets it going, right? And then if you're going to go to double team, I prefer to be faster,
Starting point is 00:21:16 Jackson or going small. On the other end of the floor, one of the things that gets really fascinating is when the Lakers do go small, Denver puts Yokic on Marcus Smart. That leads to this dynamic where the Lakers are going to get a lot of pick and pop threes for Marcus Smart. Now, here's the thing. This is two games now dating back to the game in Denver and this game where Marcus Smart has hit eight threes between the two games. Marcus Smart has been hitting. I don't have the numbers right in front of me, but Marcus has been hitting about 40% for a few months now. Marcus has become a much better shooter than he was in the early portion of the season. And so that gets a little tricky for Denver if Denver's going to guard Marcus Smart and
Starting point is 00:21:59 the Lakers are essentially guaranteed to get a wide open three for Marcus Smart whenever they want. When the centers are on the floor, this is where it gets really fascinating because when the centers are on the floor, Luca is going to be able to get the ball to the weak side. And how many times tonight did we see a skip to Austin rip a closeout driving layup, skip to Rui, ball fake, one dribble, mid-range pull-up, knock it down. He's three-for-three on those today. He came into the game 58% on the season, which is number one in the entire NBA, among players who have taken at least 100 off the dribble twos like that.
Starting point is 00:22:35 LeBron late in the game in overtime, attacks that close-out off of the right wing, drops it off to Aiton for the little bucket in the lane. And so I kept coming back to this when I was watching that game. Neither of these two teams can really guard each other. The only way that they can guard each other is by putting two on the ball. Even when Denver had an extended stretch of success against the Lakers defense in that third quarter, it was putting two on the ball. Luca just wasn't handling it very well.
Starting point is 00:23:05 So if they have to put two on the ball on Luca when the Lakers are small, and they have to put two on the ball on Luca when the Lakers are big, and then on the other end of the floor, like unless Aitin miraculously just becomes a Yokic stopper, which I do not think he is, they're going to constantly have to put two on the ball on Yokic, right? And so so many of these games are going to come down
Starting point is 00:23:26 to just like, how well do you shoot the ball from three? How well for a Lakers team, they're going to attack it more from two-point land, but how well are they converting those closeouts for pull-up twos and for driving layups and things along those lines, right? It bodes for a really entertaining series. it would always be super entertaining to see two teams that can't guard each other.
Starting point is 00:23:47 But I think that was a big part of why this game had so many kind of like bizarre back and forth runs. It's because at any given moment, they're getting so many good looks that you just hit two or three threes in a row. You get two or three easy buckets in a row. And suddenly you have a seven oh run and eight oh run. And like that's really the dynamic between these two teams. That's very different from when Anthony Davis was here versus when Luca Donchage was here, right? when Anthony Davis was here, it was like, oh, man, they can't guard the LeBron A.D. Pick and roll with Yokic, but we'll just put AD on, I will put Aaron Gordon on you on Anthony Davis. And we'll switch that pick and roll. Now all of a sudden, we're running pick and rolls with Rui Hachamura because that's who Yokic is guarding. And they could successfully guard that two on two. Everything falls apart. The Lakers have to put two on the ball on the other end. The nuggets don't. It's a huge mismatch. That's why the nuggets kick their ass year and you're out, right? This is very different because of Luca and because of what he can do in ball screens.
Starting point is 00:24:45 The Nuggets have to put two on the ball on Luca. The Lakers have to put two on the ball on Nicole Yokic and it just makes it so that they can't guard each other. Overall, with the Lakers, because I think they've won eight out of nine now. This is their third straight win against the team that is a, like what we consider to be a contender, so to speak, a really, really good team in the upper echelon in the league. they've got more chances in the coming weeks on their road trip. I thought tonight was a really good step forward for them,
Starting point is 00:25:15 even if they were lost in the sense that there were these extended stretches where they looked like a dead serious team. I texted a couple of buddies while I was watching that game. Can you imagine if somebody would have taken footage of that Lakers defense and that first half in particular and showed it to you back in like December? You'd be like this is AI generated. Like what is this basketball team? It doesn't look anything like.
Starting point is 00:25:39 the Lakers we saw in the early part portion of the year. They are capable now of bursts of really good defense. But as we saw in that third quarter, they let go with a rope for a few minutes, particularly in transition defense, but also their defensive rotations got a little sloppier in the second half as they gave up more openings from the three point line. It's harder to hang on to the rope for 48 minutes than it is to hang on the rope for 12 minutes or for 24 minutes. And so the next step. So like what's the next step for the Lakers, right? Because like, you know, we have our, we are, I don't think anybody listening to this show thinks that the Lakers are going to go hoist the trophy. I don't either. But like, there's somewhere between a team that's going to get blown out in the first round to a team that could
Starting point is 00:26:24 compete in the first round to a team that could win a first round series. So, hey, maybe a team that can win two series. Bear with me. This cold is still kicking my ass. But like that that that, that, that, pathway, there are steps along that way that the Lakers have to clear to get from a team that that will get beat in the first round to a team that will compete in the first round to a team that can win in the first round, so on and so forth. I think the Lakers have made that first leap. Good God. The Lakers have made that first leap.
Starting point is 00:26:59 I don't think they're going to get embarrassed in the first round anymore. They look like a team that's going to compete in the first round. The next leap is going from a team that can compete in a first round series to win a first round series. And it's that kind of shit in the third quarter that they have to clean up. They've got to avoid the easy transition kick ahead baskets, the botched rotations, the mistakes, the bad fouls, the bigs, the bigs all season long have been bad on ISO threes, but they have to do a much better job defending those ISO threes. Those are the kinds of things they have to clean up in order to get to the point where they can win a first round series, or like legitimately
Starting point is 00:27:32 advance the second round to the second round to go from a team that can advance the second round to a team that can advance to the third round, I think they need more out of LeBron. That's the last piece here. Like if LeBron can get to a point where he has like he got Stonewalled on a couple postups tonight. Overall, I thought LeBron was great. He defended really well. He made a lot of really good connective plays on both ends of the floor. But he got Stonewalled on a couple of postups, couple sloppy turnovers. If LeBron could bump his on ball stuff up to a guy that in a night like tonight goes for 25 instead of 17 and gets rid of a couple of those turnovers, I suddenly look at this as a team that could potentially win two series and, you know, eventually lose to a real
Starting point is 00:28:11 championship contender in that, in that third round. And so good step in the right direction, a lot to still work on a lot of really tough games in the future. Again, coming up on, on Monday against Houston, they got a tough one. So a lot of progress still did be made. But this is the first time, I tweeted this earlier this morning, this is the first time in months, many months, that I actually feel like this Lakers team can win a playoff series. And I think that is a testament to these guys in the level of focus that they've had after the All-Star break. And they just seem hell-bent on squeezing as much as they can out of the sponge and maximizing this thing, which I respect about that, which I respect about the guys in that locker room. All right, guys, that's all I have for tonight.
Starting point is 00:28:53 Again, I just wanted to give you guys my kind of instant reaction to this game. Tomorrow, we have Thunderwolves. I'm going to record a reaction to that that's going to run on Monday. we are not going to have a usual show on Monday. The reason why is, I don't know if you guys heard, but there's a massive heat wave coming in that is like historic in the Western United States. And it's going to be so crazy
Starting point is 00:29:17 that I think all the ski resorts are going to close for the season. So I'm going to go skiing on Monday. And that's going to be my last ski day of the season. So we have obviously this reaction. We'll have a Thunder, a Wolf's reaction that will run on Monday that I'm recording tomorrow.
Starting point is 00:29:32 And then we'll get back to our, schedule on Tuesday. Again, as always, I appreciate you guys for rocking with us and rocking with the show. Now, see you guys on Monday. Hey, guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast. Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to us. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it. But, you know, tired and sick. Tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the Iheart radio app,
Starting point is 00:30:11 or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel help an a cappella band with their between songs banter.
Starting point is 00:30:34 Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Swindley. Michael and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in.
Starting point is 00:30:55 I'm Timbo, in every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headline. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to Sports Slice on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slicelife 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Winning on Clay is an art. The rallies are relentless.
Starting point is 00:31:24 And at the French Open, only the toughest survive. I'd know. I competed there for decades. Join me, Renee Stubbs, on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast for no nonsense breakdowns of the biggest matches, the toughest players, and the moments that define Roland Garris. Jen should win. She's an outsider to win the French for me. She likes Clay. Listen, Lerabakina is arguably the best player in the world right now,
Starting point is 00:31:45 and I actually can win on any surface. Listen to the Renee Stub's tennis podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. This is an IHart podcast. Guaranteed human.

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